European Union

The Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, a known critic of the Kremlin, was shot dead in Kiev on Tuesday. Formerly a soldier in the Chechen war, Babchenko worked as a war reporter and opposed Russian intervention in Ukraine. Commentators examine the motives behind the murder.

In the effort to provide balanced commentary on the Middle East crisis, the Swiss daily Le Temps is publishing four very different points of view starting today - coinciding with missile attacks from Gaza against Israel. We publish excerpts from the first two texts.

Almost one-fifth (19.7 percent) of working-age Romanians live outside the country according to a 2017 Eurostat survey published on Tuesday. Romania thus tops the list of countries whose citizens are leaving to work abroad. The EU average is just 3.8 percent of a country's working-age population. Many of these migrants have left Romania for good, observers fear.

As the discussions between the European Parliament and the Council continue on the recast of the Renewable Energy Directive, the European Oilseed Alliance (EOA) calls on policymakers to support European rapeseed producers and acknowledge the role of the EU biofuels sector in the decarbonisation of road transport and the coproduction of proteins for animal feed.

Spanish police briefly arrested British human rights activist Bill Browder on Wednesday, on Russian charges of "fraud" filed via Interpol, the international police agency. The attack was the sixth time Russia had used Interpol against Browder, who campaigns for Russia sanctions. Interpol dismissed the other ones on grounds they were politically motivated. "Worrying that autocratic Russia can get democratic Spain to go after someone," liberal MEP Guy Verhofstadt said.

Die unklare politische Lage in Italien versetzt die Börsen in Unruhe. Am Dienstag kam es zu starken Kurseinbrüchen, der Euro verlor deutlich an Wert. Es ist die Stunde der Finanzmarktexperten in den europäischen Medien, die darüber spekulieren, ob Italien eine neue Finanzkrise auslöst und ob die letzte Rettung Berlusconi heißt.

Die Entscheidung des italienischen Präsidenten Sergio Mattarella, den umstrittenen Ökonom Paolo Savona als Finanzminister abzulehnen, wird in Europas Medien weiterhin hitzig diskutiert. Die einen glauben, dass er Italien vor einem Absturz an den Finanzmärkten bewahrt hat. Andere fürchten, dass er Öl ins Feuer der Populisten gegossen hat, die nicht von ungefähr immer stärker werden.